No Rapture, just an earthy party

No Rapture, just a party;
based on 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18



The Bible is full of stories on banquets and invitations as if to proclaim God’s life among us is all about sumptuous feasts and happy gatherings. Look at the stories of the prodigal son (Luke 15), the groom and the bridal party (Matthew 25.6), even Joseph and his reuniting with his brothers and father (Genesis 42). There are stories of Jesus eating and drinking with short people, taxing people, lazy people, frantic people, wise people, possessed people and more. I recall, as well, the big entrance into Jerusalem just before the last supper (Matthew 21). In fact, Jesus spent a lot of time with a wide variety of folks who, presumably, knew how to party! This leads me to an easy conclusion: The biblical indicators are that, out of thanksgiving, we can all be about celebrating God’s love for all creation.

When we break into the letters ascribed to Paul, we find an additional nuance: these festive meetings involve going out to meet the dignitary and bringing the dignitary to the event. Paul was brought from the house of Simon by the sea to the house of the soldier, Cornelius in Acts 10; and in Acts 28:15, the Christians in Rome journeyed journey out to meet Paul and become part of his entourage as he entered the capital city.

I like what Steven Bouma-Prediger says here:

[The oft quoted passage below] does not describe “the rapture”—believers being whisked off the Earth and the Earth being burned up to nothing. Indeed, contrary to what many Americans believe, there is no “Rapture” in the bible. Paul’s picture here is not about escaping from the Earth but about greeting the King as he returns to establish shalom on Earth. Christian eschatology is not escapist but earthly and earthy. And since our ethics is shaped by our eschatology, our actions in the present ought to reflect this earthly and earthy view of God’s good future.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

13But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, _ about those who have died, _ so that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died. _ 15For this we declare to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will by no means precede those who have died. _ 16For the Lord himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever. 18Therefore encourage one another with these words.

What’s biblical is that Christ is coming and his followers will have an ecstatic meeting in the air with him. And right after that—an earthly and earthy party.